‘Code red’ report highlights lost time for ambulances

Cambridge Times

In 2011, local emergency services faced 154 situations where every ambulance in Waterloo Region was occupied.

When those “code red” situations occur, normal protocol is to call out for help from neighbouring communities. Depending where 911 calls are coming from, ambulances can be brought in from Guelph, Stratford, Brantford or other neighbouring areas. Often, a local ambulance is freed up and sent to respond to the call before the out-of-town ambulance arrives.

The situation doesn’t sit well with the regional councillors, who heard about it Tuesday in an annual report on Waterloo Region’s EMS services.

“This is not a good report, folks, and it seems to me that it doesn’t get better year after year. I don’t find this acceptable and I don’t think the public does either,” said Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig.

According to regional emergency services director John Prno, the main reason for the code reds is ambulances stuck in offload delays at hospitals. The amount of time lost to such delays has risen by 140 per cent since 2007, but appears to have stabilized in 2012 despite Grand River Hospital closing its doors to critical patients for much of April due to lab contamination.

The code reds levelled off significantly after occurring nearly once per day in the early part of 2011, thanks to the implementation of measures such as a “code yellow”+ condition which alerts local hospitals to place a greater priority on unloading ambulances.

Waterloo Region’s ambulances handled an average of 104 calls per day in 2011, up nine per cent from 2010.

Much of that growth was seen in the rural townships, which accounted for 13 calls per day, up 20 per cent from the year before. Prno attributes this to a general increase in population in the townships. About 12 per cent of total ambulance calls come from the townships.

Despite the increase in call volume, the two township ambulances – one based in Baden, one in St. Jacobs – remain dormant between midnight and 6 a.m. Any ambulance calls between those hours are handled by crews from nearby cities, who themselves are dealing with more calls during the overnight hours.

A new ambulance will begin service in July, which Prno says will help with some of the demand.

“It should help the rural communities quite dramatically,” he said.

The province has set a target for ambulances to respond to 90 per cent of calls within 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Local ambulances are currently responding to 90 per cent of calls within 12 minutes and 24 seconds, and Prno says they’ve never been able to meet the provincial target, though the time has shown a slight decrease thus far in 2012.

Noting that the response time for Cambridge Fire Department trucks is approximately four minutes, Craig questioned whether paramedics could be placed at fire stations and travel on fire trucks.

“You can put the paramedics on the fire truck, but you still need to have the ambulance there to transport the patient,” responded Prno, who said the associated staffing costs would require a doubling of the EMS budget.

Coun. Sean Strickland, who chairs the region’s community services committee, agreed with Craig that there’s cause for concern, but said the region’s EMS master plan was able to address any shortcomings in the system through the gradual introduction of more staff, more ambulances and greater use of technology.

“There’s a plan in place. We’re implementing the plan. We’ve agreed to put more resources into it,” he said. “Other than that, I’m not sure there’s much more that we can do.”